Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Lamentations 4 / Basic English

1. How dark has the gold become! how changed the best gold! the stones of the holy place are dropping out at the top of every street.
2. The valued sons of Zion, whose price was the best gold, are looked on as vessels of earth, the work of the hands of the potter!
3. Even the beasts of the waste land have full breasts, they give milk to their young ones: the daughter of my people has become cruel like the ostriches in the waste land.
4. The tongue of the child at the breast is fixed to the roof of his mouth for need of drink: the young children are crying out for bread, and no man gives it to them.
5. Those who were used to feasting on delicate food are wasted in the streets: those who as children were dressed in purple are stretched out on the dust.
6. For the punishment of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of Sodom, which was overturned suddenly without any hand falling on her.
7. Her holy ones were cleaner than snow, they were whiter than milk, their bodies were redder than corals, their form was as the sapphire:
8. Their face is blacker than night; in the streets no one has knowledge of them: their skin is hanging on their bones, they are dry, they have become like wood.
9. Those who have been put to the sword are better off than those whose death is caused by need of food; for these come to death slowly, burned up like the fruit of the field.
10. The hands of kind-hearted women have been boiling their children; they were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
11. The Lord has given full effect to his passion, he has let loose his burning wrath; he has made a fire in Zion, causing the destruction of its bases.
12. To the kings of the earth and to all the people of the world it did not seem possible that the attackers and the haters would go into the doors of Jerusalem.
13. It is because of the sins of her prophets and the evil-doing of her priests, by whom the blood of the upright has been drained out in her.
14. They are wandering like blind men in the streets, they are made unclean with blood, so that their robes may not be touched by men.
15. Away! unclean! they were crying out to them, Away! away! let there be no touching: when they went away in flight and wandering, men said among the nations, There is no further resting-place for them.
16. The face of the Lord has sent them in all directions; he will no longer take care of them: they had no respect for the priests, they gave no honour to the old men.
17. Our eyes are still wasting away in looking for our false help: we have been watching for a nation unable to give salvation.
18. They go after our steps so that we may not go in our streets: our end is near, our days are numbered; for our end has come.
19. Those who went after us were quicker than the eagles of the heaven, driving us before them on the mountains, waiting secretly for us in the waste land.
20. Our breath of life, he on whom the holy oil was put, was taken in their holes; of whom we said, Under his shade we will be living among the nations.
21. Have joy and be glad, O daughter of Edom, living in the land of Uz: the cup will be given to you in your turn, and you will be overcome with wine and your shame will be seen.
22. The punishment of your evil-doing is complete, O daughter of Zion; never again will he take you away as a prisoner: he will give you the reward of your evil-doing, O daughter of Edom; he will let your sin be uncovered.

Lamentations 5 / Basic English

1. Keep in mind, O Lord, what has come to us: take note and see our shame.
2. Our heritage is given up to men of strange lands, our houses to those who are not our countrymen.
3. We are children without fathers, our mothers are like widows.
4. We give money for a drink of water, we get our wood for a price.
5. Our attackers are on our necks: overcome with weariness, we have no rest.
6. We have given our hands to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians so that we might have enough bread.
7. Our fathers were sinners and are dead; and the weight of their evil-doing is on us.
8. Servants are ruling over us, and there is no one to make us free from their hands.
9. We put our lives in danger to get our bread, because of the sword of the waste land.
10. Our skin is heated like an oven because of our burning heat from need of food.
11. They took by force the women in Zion, the virgins in the towns of Judah.
12. Their hands put princes to death by hanging: the faces of old men were not honoured.
13. The young men were crushing the grain, and the boys were falling under the wood.
14. The old men are no longer seated in the doorway, and the music of the young men has come to an end.
15. The joy of our hearts is ended; our dancing is changed into sorrow.
16. The crown has been taken from our head: sorrow is ours, for we are sinners.
17. Because of this our hearts are feeble; for these things our eyes are dark;
18. Because of the mountain of Zion which is a waste; jackals go over it.
19. You, O Lord, are seated as King for ever; the seat of your power is eternal.
20. Why have we gone from your memory for ever? why have you been turned away from us for so long?
21. Make us come back to you, O Lord, and let us be turned; make our days new again as in the past.
22. But you have quite given us up; you are full of wrath against us.

2 Timothy 2 / Basic English

1. So then, my child, be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus.
2. And the things which I have said to you before a number of witnesses, give to those of the faith, so that they may be teachers of others.
3. Be ready to do without the comforts of life, as one of the army of Christ Jesus.
4. A fighting man, when he is with the army, keeps himself free from the business of this life so that he may be pleasing to him who has taken him into his army.
5. And if a man takes part in a competition he does not get the crown if he has not kept the rules.
6. It is right for the worker in the fields to be the first to take of the fruit.
7. Give thought to what I say; for the Lord will give you wisdom in all things.
8. Keep in mind Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, who came back from the dead, as my good news gives witness:
9. In which I put up with the hardest conditions, even prison chains, like one who has done a crime; but the word of God is not in chains.
10. But I undergo all things for the saints, so that they may have salvation in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
11. This is a true saying: If we undergo death with him, then will we be living with him:
12. If we go on to the end, then we will be ruling with him: if we say we have no knowledge of him, then he will say he has no knowledge of us:
13. If we are without faith, still he keeps faith, for he will never be untrue to himself.
14. Put these things before them, giving them orders in the name of the Lord to keep themselves from fighting about words, which is of no profit, only causing error in their hearers.
15. Let it be your care to get the approval of God, as a workman who has no cause for shame, giving the true word in the right way.
16. But take no part in wrong and foolish talk, for those who do so will go farther into evil,
17. And their words will be like poisoned wounds in the flesh: such are Hymenaeus and Philetus;
18. Men whose ideas are all false, who say that the coming back from the dead has even now taken place, overturning the faith of some.
19. But God's strong base is unchanging, having this sign, The Lord has knowledge of those who are his: and, Let everyone by whom the name of the Lord is named be turned away from evil.
20. Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but others of wood and earth, and some which are honoured and some without honour.
21. If a man makes himself clean from these, he will be a vessel for honour, made holy, ready for the master's use, ready for every good work.
22. But keep yourself from those desires of the flesh which are strong when the body is young, and go after righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those whose prayers go up to the Lord from a clean heart.
23. And put away foolish and uncontrolled questionings, seeing that they are a cause of trouble.
24. For it is not right for the Lord's servant to make trouble, but he is to be gentle to all, ready in teaching, putting up with wrong,
25. Gently guiding those who go against the teaching; if by chance God may give them a change of heart and true knowledge,
26. And so they may get themselves free from the net of the Evil One, being made the prisoners of the Lord's servant, for the purpose of God.